I just got this in an email...it is a little long but makes for an interesting read. It explains well what percentage of taxes are paid by who and when a flat tax reduction is given (such as the ones Republicans favor) what the effect is.

NOTE: The following data shows the distribution of taxes paid by various
wage earners in the US, as reported by the IRS, for the tax year 2000 (the
latest year for which the figures are available):

The top 1% paid 37.4% of all federal income taxes;
The top 5% paid 56.7%;
The top 10% paid 67.3%;
The top 25% paid 84.0%;
The top 50% paid 96.1%.


How do tax cuts affect these different groups?
Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that everyday, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this (the numbers are rounded to make it even dollars): The first three men -- the poorest -- would pay nothing; the fourth would pay $1, the fifth would pay $3, the sixth would pay $4, the seventh $6, the eighth $8, the ninth
$11,and the tenth man -- the richest -- would pay $67.

The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement -- until one day, the owner threw them a curve (in tax language, a tax cut). "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." So now dinner for the ten only cost
$80.00. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first three men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other seven -- the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?"

The seven men realized that $20 divided by seven is $2.86. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fourth man would end up being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so the fourth man paid nothing, the fifth pitched in $2, the sixth pitched in $3, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $6, the ninth paid $9, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $55 instead of his earlier $67. Each of the seven was better off than before. And the first three continued to eat
for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the fourth man, "but he," pointing to the tenth, "got 12!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth, sixth and seventh men: "I only saved a dollar, too...it's unfair that he
got twelve times more than me!" "That's true!" shouted the eighth man, "why should he get $12 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Me too!" exclaimed the ninth man, who also got a $2 reduction in his bill. "Wait a minute," yelled the first three men in unison, "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it
came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late, what was very important. They were FIFTY-FIVE DOLLARS short of paying the bill without their rich friend!


Imagine that!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Because they pay the most taxes....by a lot!